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Peter Hollins at https://PeteHollins.com has studied psychology and peak human performance for over a dozen years and is a bestselling author.

Episode Transcript

Courage versus fear.

Comfort versus worry.

Faith versus doubt.

Confidence versus uncertainty.

These are battles fought every day—battles of

mindset.

And the arena in which they fight is contained
within

our brains.

Whichever set of thoughts you allow to win will
rule the

day and your actions,

and that is not a positive experience when

disempowering thoughts win.

Indeed,

for a few of us,

the battles are one-sided.

People who experience nearly constant success
(or

think they do) may be more able to disregard the

negative or naysaying sides in the clash.

Others who face mounting,

daily struggles through an extended amount of
time

don’t trust the positive voices.

We may perceive our mindsets as things we can’t

change or affect.

We envision them as products of an external

environment,

circumstances,

or history that are far bigger factors than we
can

proactively transform.

The truth is that you have great capacity to
modify

your mindset.

Goals and accomplishments that might seem
impossible

in an “entrenched” mindset can be attained
much more

practically than you may realize,

just by reorganizing your way of thinking.

Is it easy to change your mindset?

Of course it is!

Except when it isn’t.

Changing one’s mindset is “easy” because
there’s no

heavy lifting or manual effort.

It’s not a physical procedure that requires
too much

exertion.

You could be doing it while sitting on a couch
without

anyone knowing—all you have to do is think
something

into existence and it becomes true.

If you were to ask someone if they’d rather
think

different thoughts or work in a coal mine for 10
hours,

it’s not going to be a close decision.

But the ability to think a certain way on a
consistent

basis involves self-discipline and focus to the
highest

degree; changing a mindset is hard and can be

frustrating because your effort won’t directly

translate into a different type of thought.

You can always hit the gym harder,

but thinking harder doesn’t necessarily do
anything.

There is really no correlation between an input
and an

output.

Changing your mindset is especially tough if it
involves

countering what you’ve been taught all your
life.

A complete rewiring of your thoughts and
mindsets is

daunting at best but imperative to creating a
life you

feel happy to wake up to every day.

Like it or not,

our mindset is our internal lens to the world
around us.

Our thoughts,

opinions,

beliefs,

fears,

and hopes get projected onto everything we see.

We use those inner convictions to interpret
everything

that happens in the world and to us.

People who have attained the success you desire
have

all manipulated their mindsets in specific ways.

You could argue that other factors—education,

upbringing,

luck,

timing—produced their great achievements.

It’s easy to use those as an excuse for your
lack of

action,

but the real-life evidence doesn’t tend to
support that.

Is everyone rich simply lucky and rich to begin
with and

everyone poor simply lazy and apathetic?

Two children from the same middle-class family,

who grew up in the same circumstances,

can wind up in wildly different situations.

One child with a positive mindset might turn out
to be

hardworking and wealthy.

The other one could be consumed by a jealous
mindset

and a predisposition to failure and might wind
up in a

thankless job with low prospects.

The only difference between you and greatly

successful people is in the mindset.

It’s your view of the world,

its challenges and rewards,

and how you navigate through all of them.

The Inner Voice

Mindsets can be as varied as any given segment
of the

population.

Here are just a few different mindsets you might

possess to varying degrees:

Productive mindset.

Someone who is task-oriented and driven to
complete

what they’re working on—and then move on to
the next

thing.

They’re a hammer,

and everything looks like a nail.

They are always in motion.

Creative mindset.

A person with unique abilities and inventive
approaches

who can solve problems in ways very few others
can.

They always seek unconventional methods to
accomplish

the same goal.

Confident mindset.

Someone who’s happy with themselves and
projects

conviction,

ability,

and leadership.

They naturally end up in charge and taking
action first.

They feel that anything is possible.

Dreamer mindset.

An individual who can see the big picture and is
able to

inspire others to take a broad and beneficial
approach

toward the future.

They think big picture in lieu of details and
procedures.

These mindsets affect and change someone’s

perception of the world.

A productive mindset might see what needs to be
done

in their immediate environment,

whereas the dreamer mindset might see its
potential in

an emotional or altruistic sense.

These are just some of the good mindsets.

There are also mindsets for jealousy,

anger,

fear,

greed,

and the opposite of all of the mindsets above.

Self-talk—the commentary,

criticism,

and judgment we tell ourselves about
ourselves—is one

“channel” that your mindset tunes into,

whether it’s out loud or to yourself.

Just think of it as your internal dialogue that
never

goes away,

for better or worse.

It narrates your life,

but the perspective it narrates from is
completely up

to you.

You can be your own biggest cheerleader or
critic.

Each statement you think or say constructs your
inner

monument of self-belief,

brick by brick.

And we probably give a little more credence to
negating

self-talk since it’s easier to believe we
can’t do

something if we haven’t yet tried.

“I’m not smart enough to learn complicated
math

concepts,” “I’m not physically gifted
enough to run a

10-kilometer marathon,” “I’m not
attractive enough to

have someone interested in me.”

Another aspect of your inner voice is the
narrative:

the never-ending story that you tell over your
entire

life about who you are and what you’re capable
of.

It explains what happens in your life and why
you do

certain things that you do.

It often addresses “themes” or recurring
events that

occur in a lifespan.

It usually isn’t very accurate,

especially if you tend to feel bad about
yourself.

Self-talk and the narrative have a
chicken-and-egg

relationship.

For instance,

those with a victimized mindset claim that they
were

the patsies of people despite their best
intentions.

You claim you were fired from your job because
your

supervisor didn’t care for your personality,

but it might have been simply that their budget
got a

whopping cut and you had to be let go.

This isn’t to say that your self-talk and
narrative don’t

contain elements of truth or are completely
unfounded.

But it’s important to check them with reality
as much

as possible.

The more you can control your thoughts and inner

voice,

the more enabled you’ll feel to make positive
changes.